7 (d).....Veterinarians shall practice in accordance with advancements and acceptable and prevailing standards of veterinary medical practice in this Commonwealth related to the pharmacologic properties, indications and contraindications of drugs and biologics. (e) Veterinarians shall explain the benefits and reasonably anticipated significant potential risks of treatment options to clients.

All pet owners know it’s important to protect our four-legged friends from rabies, but how much is the veterinarian telling about that shot? The FOX 9 Investigators went undercover to find out if some clinics are taking financial advantage of pet owners by being vague about vaccines.

States Consider Controlling Rabies Vaccination Intervals, by Edie Lau The Veterinary Information Network News Service 8/12/11 http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=19501"Concerns in Delaware and Minnesota about over-vaccination center around the practice by some small-animal veterinarians of administering every one or two years rabies vaccines that have been proven to be effective for three years."

The USDA allows vaccine manufacturers to relabel their 3 year rabies vaccines as 1 year products. This link http://www.calmanimalcare.com/vaccine.htm , you will be taken to the Calm Animal Care website, which has posted Colorado State University's Small Animal Vaccination Protocol for its veterinary teaching hospital, which states:"Even with rabies vaccines, the label may be misleading in that a three year duration of immunity product may also be labeled and sold as a one year duration of immunity product."

"In the case of Defensor 1 and Defensor 3 vaccines made by Pfizer, testing is the only difference between the products. 'The formulations are the same, but regulatory requirements for the one- and three-year vaccines are different, requiring distinct and separate studies for each label,' said Pfizer spokesman Richard Chambers." States Consider Controlling Rabies Vaccination Intervals, by Edie Lau The Veterinary Information Network News Service 8/12/11 http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=19501

According to Dr. Ronald Schultz of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, "There is no benefit from annual rabies vaccination and most one year rabies products are similar or identical to the 3-year products with regard to duration of immunity and effectiveness. However, if they are 1 year rabies vaccines, they must be legally given annually!" from What Everyone Needs to Know about Canine Vaccines http://www.puliclub.org/CHF/AKC2007Conf ... ccines.htm

MINNESOTA Rabies Vax Survey: 88.8% of veterinarians responding to a rabies survey from the Board of Veterinary Medicine indicated they give a 3 year rabies vaccine; yet 53.3% fail to give pet owners a corresponding 3 year rabies certificate (36.2% issue a 2 year certificate, 17.1% issue "other"). When asked if they inform clients when they put a different expiration date on the rabies certificate than that on the vaccine administered, 40.9% responded that they did not inform the client.

A copy of this 12/14/11 report entitled "Rabies Vaccination Survey Report" may be requested from Dr. John King, Executive Director of the Minnesota Board of Veterinary Medicine (651) 201-2844 John.King@state.mn.us